Past Exhibitions

Contested Visions

The Aztec cache known as Offering 7, one of many treasures included in the exhibition Contested Visions, is one of some 130 offerings that were discovered within the Aztec’s Templo Mayor. Its contents--largely aquatic material such as seashells, freshwater fish, coral, and reptiles--evoke the layers of the cosmos, from the watery underworld to the surface of the earth. Here, the Museo del Templo Mayor’s archeaologist Fernando Carrizosa Montfort explains the complex meanings of this remarkable piece during the installation at LACMA.